Why My Cousin Was Totally Wrong

My cousin re-posted this on Facebook:

"Gas to jump to $5 a gallon by Memorial Day. Obama said to "get used to it" and "trade your car in for an energy efficient car." With unemployment above 10%, can YOU afford a trade in?!?!? Repost if you want Obama to get used to being a ONE term president.."

This is why he's wrong; and bear with me, because he is entirely incorrect and his whole repost was debunked in less than 5 minutes of Googling.

Firstly: there's the gas issue. Early predictions (back in Dec, 2010) said $5 by the end of 2011. As of right now, they're sitting at an all-time high of $3.84/gallon nationally; up 98 cents from a year ago. Lifted from the same article: "The hike in gas prices is correlated with the continued spike in oil prices. Light, sweet crude oil futures settled at $107.12 a barrel today [04/18]" While the situation does look dire, what with a precious and all important commodity slowly dwindling (remember Peak Oil, and how everybody said that this day would come and nobody did anything about it?), it's probably not that bad and climbing by $1.16 in less than a month seems pretty intense. So, I had to do some actual research (took up the bulk of my 5 minutes). I found (and stay with me, here, it gets involved (because I had to jump through hoops to find a real news story that threw out numbers)) that Seattle's gas prices average about 10-15 cents more than the national average ($3.96/Seattle compared to $3.84/national). I also found that on Memorial Day at the end of May, analysts predict that gas prices in Seattle will spike to nearly $4.50 a gallon. If you take that same 12 cents off of it, that number becomes a $4.38 national gasoline average.

Secondly: Obama did not say "get used to it" while wringing his hands and laughing maniacally. He said (quoted from Instapundit & AP): "I'm just going to be honest with you. There's not much we can do next week or two weeks from now. Gas prices? They're going to still fluctuate until we can start making these broader changes and that's going to take a couple years to have serious effect." So, yeah, you're right: we're going to have to get used to it. Last I knew, the President didn't set gas prices. He does set energy policy though, and he intends to reduce oil imports, tap domestic energy sources and shift the nation to renewable energy. Lastly, on the trade-in comment, he did say, "If you're complaining about the price of gas and you're only getting 8 miles a gallon, you know, you might want to think about a trade in." What a STUPID COMMENT THAT WAS, RIGHT?!

Thirdly: Unemployment. This can be destroyed in a single sentence lifted directly from ABCNews.com: "The Labor Department reported earlier this month that the national unemployment rate is at a two-year low of 8.8 percent for the month of March."

Why my cousin was totally wrong.

“Gas to jump to $5 a gallon by Memorial Day. Obama said to "get used to it" and "trade your car in for an energy efficient car." With unemployment above 10%, can YOU afford a trade in?!?!? Repost if you want Obama to get used to being a ONE term president..”

My cousin re-posted that on Facebook and this is why he’s wrong; and bear with me, because he is entirely incorrect and his whole repost was debunked in less than 5 minutes of Googling.

Firstly: there’s the gas issue. Early predictions (back in Dec, 2010) said $5 by the end of 2011. As of right now, they’re sitting at an all-time high of $3.84/gallon nationally; up 98 cents from a year ago. Lifted from the same article: “The hike in gas prices is correlated with the continued spike in oil prices. Light, sweet crude oil futures settled at $107.12 a barrel today [04/18]” While the situation does look dire, what with a precious and all important commodity slowly dwindling (remember Peak Oil, and how everybody said that this day would come and nobody did anything about it?), it’s probably not that bad and climbing by $1.16 in less than a month seems pretty intense. So, I had to do some actual research (took up the bulk of my 5 minutes). I found (and stay with me, here, it gets involved (because I had to jump through hoops to find a real news story that threw out numbers)) that Seattle’s gas prices average about 10-15 cents more than the national average ($3.96/Seattle compared to $3.84/national). I also found that on Memorial Day at the end of May, analysts predict that gas prices in Seattle will spike to nearly $4.50 a gallon. If you take that same 12 cents off of it, that number becomes a $4.38 national gasoline average.

Secondly: Obama did not say “get used to it” while wringing his hands and laughing maniacally. He said (quoted from Instapundit & AP): “I’m just going to be honest with you. There’s not much we can do next week or two weeks from now. Gas prices? They’re going to still fluctuate until we can start making these broader changes and that’s going to take a couple years to have serious effect.” So, yeah, you’re right: we’re going to have to get used to it. Last I knew, the President didn’t set gas prices. He does set energy policy though, and he intends to reduce oil imports, tap domestic energy sources and shift the nation to renewable energy. Lastly, on the trade-in comment, he did say, “If you’re complaining about the price of gas and you’re only getting 8 miles a gallon, you know, you might want to think about a trade in.” What a STUPID COMMENT THAT WAS, RIGHT?!

"If we can convince the people to be afraid of everything and that we're the only
people to help keep them safe, then they'll have to vote for us"

Thirdly: Unemployment. This can be destroyed in a single sentence lifted directly from ABCNews.com: “The Labor Department reported earlier this month that the national unemployment rate is at a two-year low of 8.8 percent for the month of March.”